Do you have a separate fish pot? (spinoff of pareve thread)

Shmerling

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 12:45 am

No one else mentioned it on the other thread, so I was just wondering, are you makpid to use a separate pareve pot for fish or do you use a fleishige one? My parents were makpid, my dh is not. Was just wondering how common this chumra is.

Marion

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 1:46 am

I see no reason. Firstly, because usually we eat fish milchig, so I do it in a milchig Pyrex. Secondly, because the minhag (yes, minhag) is not to use the same EATING utensils for meat AFTER fish, and that's due to a concern that one might choke on a bone that got transferred from the utensil to the meat unknowingly.

hadasa

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 2:09 am

Marion wrote:

AFAIK, not eating fish and meat together is a Halachah in SA. I don't know about the utensils, though.
I have a separate fish pot, but it gets washed with the Fleishig dishes. I rarely fry fish, but when I do, or make tuna patties, I use a Fleishig frying pan that is not ben yomo.

Marion

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 2:20 am

Not eating fish and meat TOGETHER may be halacha, but simply not using the same dishes/utensils is minhag. You *could* eat your meat after your fish on the same plate and with the same silverware al pi halacha. But not al pi minhag.

(I will have to ask BIL about it again. I remember asking FIL once, but don't remember the explanation he gave.)

sarahd

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 5:34 am

I have a separate fish pot, but now that I think of it I fry my tuna patties or fish fillets in the same milchig frying pan that I use for omelettes and so on. Of course, it's a milchig pan and not a fleishig one.

Isramom8

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 5:41 am

Officially not, because DH says it's not necessary. But I tend to avoid using my gefilte fish pot for meat. I'll use it for pasta that will be eaten with fleishig, though.

I usually serve fish on a fish-shaped platter. Meat never gets served on that platter.

sped

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 9:30 am

I never thought of this. I usually cook it in a regular pareve pot, butwhen I needed to, I think I have used milchig or fleishig too. I don't have too many pots nor much storage space for them. Is there a reason behind this minhag?

zaq

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 9:35 am

Why would I? Virtually all pareve food in my house is cooked in pareve. I have never heard that you need a dedicated pot for fish. My mother had a dedicated enamel pan for boiling eggs, but I believe that that was because boiling eggs in aluminum pots turns the aluminum an unattractive dark grey and IIRC turns the yolks an equally unappealing color. My pots are mostly stainless steel and don't have this problem.

It is absolutely not necessary to have a dedicated pot or platter for fish, assuming one washes the utensil between fish and meat uses. It would be perfectly acceptable, if you had few dishes, to serve fish, wash the dishes, and then serve meat on the selfsame dishes. But if you didn't wash the dishes in between, your dishes would still be kosher. The separation of meat and fish has nothing to do with kashrus and everything to do with health.

Same thing with separating fish and milk for sefaradim. Nothing to do with kashrus, everything to do with health. Whether the perceived health consequences of mixing the different foods are true or not, I couldn't say, but that's the reason for these customs.

Apropos of this, at our shul dinner we were served salmon nestled on what looked like a bed of roast beef. Turns out it was grilled, sliced portobello mushroom.

suzyq

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 9:54 am

I don't, but more because I usually cook my fish in an aluminum throw-away pan. But I serve (and have seen plenty of other people serve) fish on shabbos on my regular china, which I would also serve fleishigs on if that's what I was serving for an appetizer. I also would use the same forks for fish as I use for fleishigs, so I don't think I would care much about using a pot for fish either (I usually bake my fish though).

freidasima

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 10:02 am

I don't boil fish so I don't need a separate pot as I don't "cook" it. I do panfry salmon for my husband and have a separate grill frying pan for it. As we keep that fish is pareve and can be eaten with milchigs, being ashkenazi, I serve it with a milchig meal for him. Usually when eaten on its own it is eaten on a milchig and not a fleishig plate here, but that's just what my husband got used to. I never serve fish at a meat meal, no "basar vedagim" business around here, got over that 45 years ago when my parents were on weight watchers and that came to an end. One live protein at a meal.

Chana Miriam S

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 10:20 am

I work in catering (kosher under hashgacha) and never have seen any dedicated pans for fish on the meat side. I often cook whole fish and they get cooked on the same sheets that we bake cookies and roast meat.

in fact, I don't believe the no fish/meat together is a halacha. one time, I inadvertently used a mix that had fish sauce on my chicken (at home) and the rave said just wash the plates normally. it is not a kashrut issue. there is a commentary somewhere about it but he did not give me the reference. it is obviously a widespread minhag with many variations however...

chocolate moose

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 10:23 am

Isramom8 wrote:

Officially not, because DH says it's not necessary. But I tend to avoid using my gefilte fish pot for meat. I'll use it for pasta that will be eaten with fleishig, though.

Me too, but I know it's not a din and I don't know how the idea of not using the same pot started.

I'd love a fish poacher !!!

kitov

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 10:28 am

Between my fleishig set, yes. In my milchig set, no. I even have a separate fish pot in my pesach pot set.

We are also taught not to cut fish with a knife that was used cutting onions or garlic AND hot fleishigs. So many of us even own "fish knives" or pareven knives.

Is anyone realizing how chassidishe life is more costly??? With all these pots and pans and stuff, one could've used the money for camp...lol.

hadasa

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 11:24 am

zaq wrote:

Same thing with separating fish and milk for sefaradim. Nothing to do with kashrus, everything to do with health. Whether the perceived health consequences of mixing the different foods are true or not, I couldn't say, but that's the reason for these customs.

I was told that the custom of avoiding fish and milk originated in a typo in the copies of the Beis Yosef. Nevertheless, since it was widely accepted, some Jews (not only Sefardim) took upon themselves this custom so as not to go against what was written in the Beis Yosef.

edited for accuracy

Last edited by hadasa on Tue, Jul 26 2011, 11:40 am; edited 1 time in total